Watching Scotty Blow, Cont'd

There always has been about Scott Walker an uncomfortable feeling that he is what we would have had if Richard Nixon had been a preacher's kid instead of the son of a grocer. It was only Nixon's basic insecurities and self-esteem issues that saved the country from his crimes. By contrast, Walker brings the certitude of the pulpit to the conscience-free nickel-and-dime grifting and penny-ante ratfking that are the foundation of his political career. He treats people as disposable commodities not because he's a bone-deep paranoid the way The Trick was, but because they are only minor characters in the redemption play that is Scott Walker's life. That's how he can pay no apparent price for the fact that every campaign he's ever run has been dingy, and the fact that so many of his one-time aides mysteriously wind up in the dock. There is Scott Walker and there are Those People. Mitt Romney made the same calculation, but the dichotomy in his case was born of big money and inherited privilege. Walker's is based on his pious, missionary belief that he is the recipient of a higher calling. That is extraordinarily dangerous.

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And we find today, courtesy of the good folks at the Center For Media And Democracy, thatthere is no sewer through which Scott Walker will not walk on his road to glory. It involves a hit placed on a conservative Republican legislator named Mike Ellis, who was singled out because he objected to the fact that Scott Walker is a goggle-eyed homunculus hired by Koch Industries to run their midwest subsidiary formerly known as the state of Wisconsin.

Now CMD has discovered that O'Keefe indeed received a five-figure check from a "far-right buddy" and another "Scotty boy," Wisconsin Club for Growth's Eric O'Keefe. This O'Keefe is an old friend of the Brothers Koch, a founder of a plethora of far-right organizations (including the Center for Competitive Politics, which fights clean elections laws), and a national leader in the effort to advance undisclosed dark money in elections. O'Keefe has steadfastly stood behind the extreme Walker agenda. After Walker introduced a bill to destroy public sector unions in 2011, sparking a historic uprising and the filing of 1 million signatures to recall Walker and a number of state senators, Wisconsin Club for Growth (WiCFG) played a central role in the GOP response, prompting a "John Doe" criminal probe that has riveted the state for over a year. Now, CMD has exclusively obtained tax filings showing that Eric O'Keefe (no relations to James) made a $50,000 donation to Project Veritas in 2013. Also among Project Veritas' 2013 donors were two sources of cash, Donors Trust (for $242,000) and Donors Capital ($55,000), that cloak the identities of some in the Koch network of billionaires and millionaires.

Why did Walker's people sic O'Keefe on Ellis? Because his loyalty to the sacred mission of Scott Walker was not absolute.

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Ellis was publicly critical of Walker's steep cuts to education and attempts to massively expand controversial voucher schools around the state, leading to embarrassing headlines regarding a GOP split. He also privately voiced concerns over the union-busting bill that became Act 10. Although he voted for it, Ellis would later claim that he was blind-sided by Walker and by ads paid for by the WiCFG pressuring him to fall in line after he had raised questions about the bill behind closed doors. In a revealing interview with Wisconsin Eye's Steve Walters that aired a few days after he announced his departure, Ellis talked about his 44-year career in politics, the "high-tech" operation that brought him down and the new era of hard-core, party-line politics "where you check your brain at the front door."

As usual, there is a thin layer of insulation between Walker and the people who performed the hit on Ellis. There's Eric O'Keefe of the Wisconsin Club For Growth, and all the other shady characters and organizations that are part of the ongoing investigations into coordination between Walker's campaigns and outside groups. That may be enough. But, believe me, you do not want Scott Walker running the intelligence community, and the law-enforcement institutions of the federal government. This is a guy who would have burned all the tapes.